Bobby looked anxious and happy at the same time. He was happy because he was just a week away from going on a well-deserved vacation that he and his wife had been planning for some time. He was anxious however because it was the first time in a long time that he would be leaving his business for about a month and was concerned about how the operations would go without him present.

Bobby is the proprietor of Flower Fantasy that has been in operation for over five years. They propagate a variety of flowering plants, which are sold to garden shops and other such establishments. Approximately two years ago he became the sole owner when he bought out the share of his partner. Since then he has always been present to supervise the operations. He is ably assisted by his four workers who have assured him that everything would run smoothly in his absence. They have been with him for quite some time and between them, they are able to carry on the entire process.

One of the senior guys said to him, Boss you have no need to worry. We have a budget for every month so we know how many plants we need to propagate while you gone.

That is true but if I not watching you guys you use materials like it free and work in your own merry time, Bobby replied.

Yes, but we all know how much materials and labour time it takes to produce a batch of plants, so you dont have to be here all the time. When you come back you could compare what material we actually use with what we was supposed to use and you could do the same thing for labour and overhead cost too. Where there are big differences we would have to answer, said another worker.

You make a good point, but if there is a need to produce more than the budget to satisfy our customers need just do it and we would adjust the budget accordingly to reflect how much was actually produced, Bobby said with contentment.

As he went home that evening to continue packing, Bobby felt a bit more comfortable with going on his vacation. He now realised that even though he would not be present there were mechanisms in place to ensure that cost was being controlled.

1. How does the budget serve to guide the workers?